Logging Chaser Contacts

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1

Forgive my ignorance here, but I generally have only been logging the odd chaser contact from home, and have a paper log to transcribe which I was using up till about 6 months ago.

Now I’ve moved to qlog I’d like to make sure any SOTA chases are registered in the database. Am I ok to export the whole ADIF and throw that at sotadata? It’ll be a one-time thing, after which I’ll make a note of the date I did that and only export from that date. I’m guessing if I could be bothered there is probably a filter I can apply for the export, but I thought this might be something other folk might have to do.

Cheers, Mark.
M5TEA

2

Well, yes it should work fine. We have some nice API software and the DB is the very latest shiny MS-SQL server. It depends on how many QSOs to log. If it’s 50+ a day for several years I would be defensive and export in manageable chunks. But if it’s a few a week then it should eat it all without a hiccup.

Once you are up to date, yes, note the date you last exported and export only after that. Maybe export and upload once/month just to get into a regular process.

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3

I also do a wee bit of chasing. I just log each contact as it comes, by pressing some buttons on SOTAwatch3 (android phone).

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4

Looks like I need to filter my ADIF log file before import to only include SOTA contacts. My home log only currently contains 68 contacts since I started logging with qlog:

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This appears to halt the export. I’m sure I won’t have a problem filtering the log, this is just for information.

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5

There is no < SOTA_REF> or <MY_SOTA_REF> in your ADIF file for those records. And yes, if they are not SOTA QSOs it will error if you include them.

6

OK, so over that hurdle, and indeed it does now present me with a list of contacts. However, for some reason I’m getting an Invalid Band error on my contact with Chris on Gummer’s How.

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I can’t seen anything inherently wrong here, but I must be missing something?

<call:7>M0KPW/P
<rst_sent:2>44
<rst_rcvd:2>59
<freq:5>14.26
<band:3>20m
<mode:3>SSB
<submode:3>USB
<name:5>Chris
<qth:12>Gummer's How
<gridsquare:6>IO84MG
<dxcc:3>223
<country:7>England
<cont:2>EU
<cqz:2>14
<ituz:2>27
<pfx:2>M0
<qsl_sent:1>Q
<lotw_qsl_sent:1>Q
<tx_pwr:3>100
<a_index:2>59
<clublog_qso_upload_date:8>20251114
<clublog_qso_upload_status:1>Y
<distance:17>10.72819549894338
<eqsl_qsl_sent:1>Q
<k_index:1>1
<my_antenna:4>EFLW
<my_city:14>Windermere, UK
<my_cnty:7>Cumbria
<my_country:7>England
<my_cq_zone:2>14
<my_dxcc:3>223
<my_gridsquare:6>IO84NI
<my_itu_zone:2>27
<my_name:12>Mark Wickens
<my_rig:11>FTDX-5000MP
<operator:5>M5TEA
<qrzcom_qso_upload_date:8>20251114
<qrzcom_qso_upload_status:1>Y
<sfi:3>156
<sota_ref:8>G/LD-050
<station_callsign:5>M5TEA
<altitude:3>321
<qso_date:8>20251114
<time_on:6>111800
<qso_date_off:8>20251114
<time_off:6>111823
<eor>
7

Hi Mark,

Could it be that your “YOUR location” field is wrong? You have the SOTA reference in it, in the first picture, when it should be either a Maidenhead locator or Lat/Long entry.

73 Ed DD5LP.

8

Hi Ed,

Interesting I hadn’t spotted that. Looking at the source ADIF entry, my location is specified as a 6-character Maidenhead:

<my_gridsquare:6>IO84NI

There is no entry for MY_SOTA in the ADIF file. We are very close, according to the qlog distance calculator 10.728 kms, however the gridsquare of G/LD-050 is different:

<gridsquare:6>IO84MG

Here’s the view of the contact in eqsl:

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Looking at the second screenshot you can see that MY_SOTA isn’t populated.

Regards, Mark.

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9

I think this is similar to an error I was seeing yesterday. When going into edit chaser (SWL in my case) on the Sota database, the Location field had become populated with the summit reference.

I know a fix was done early today on other stuff that was happening, maybe this one sneaked through.

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10

I cut your record down to this and it loads perfectly

<call:7>M0KPW/P
<freq:5>14.26
<band:3>20m
<mode:3>SSB
<gridsquare:6>IO84MG
<my_gridsquare:6>IO84NI
<operator:5>M5TEA
<sota_ref:8>G/LD-050
<station_callsign:5>M5TEA
<qso_date:8>20251114
<time_on:6>111800
<eor>

There’s something bogus in another field.

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11

The apostrophe (Quote) in the QTH field?

12

I tried with the full entry, something I should have done first. No errors shown. The error on the screen may have been from a previous import.

13

Yes, good spot, you are right. The bug happens if I delete an erroneous record.

So once imported and verified I get:

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If I then delete the G8CPZ/P record with the error, the error skips incorrectly to the next record in the log:

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14

Just for reference, in case there is an issue recreating the error, the contact with G8CPZ/P had the following error in the ADIF file:

<band:4>oob!
15

OK, one bug that needs fixing.

This is a feature, rather than a bug (although the populating of it during editing for @G7ADF is a bug, it appears). You can enter Lat/Long, Gridsquare, POTA or WWFF reference in the location field of either a chase or an activation QSO during the upload phase and it will autopopulate that with correct lat/long during the upload process.

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